When I was 14, I was asked what I would want as my epitaph. The best I could come up with, after a few minutes of serious thought, was "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Twenty years later, that's still the best I can explain about why I do anything.

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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Champ the Obnoxious

It's supposed to rain today. It's been supposed to rain ALL day, actually - they keep moving the actual storm time back, but it's looked like rain and been windy and cloudy all day. It's a lovely day otherwise - it's still 74 degrees out right now.

So of course I wanted to ride. I got to the barn about 4:30 and waited for James - he made it at 5 and we saddled up and headed out. I was on Champ and he was on Handyman (the little speed QH) because I said I wanted to run. It was quite windy and warm, and the horses just knew that monsters lurked around the corners. They were both doing their best wild-horse imitations - heads up, ears up, bouncing around, halfheartedly wanting to bolt.

We were prancing through a little belt of trees, with Champ acting like he was too busy looking for wolves to bother noticing the trees. I talk to Champ all the time just like he's a human, because he responds well to it. Some days I think he knows a lot of English, and some days I think he just reacts to the tone of my voice. Anyway, we're prancing along and all of a sudden there's two logs at our feet, half-buried in the leaves! I didn't do anything with my hands or legs, but I said "Champ, god dammit, watch out for those damn logs before you break your damn leg." (I cuss him all the time too.) Champ immediately slowed down, stepped very carefully over the logs, rotated one ear back at me like "See? I knew those logs were there!" and then started prancing again.

I couldn't do anything but laugh and be kind of amazed at my too-smart horse.